Sláintecare chief queried de Buitléir’s impact on beds

The Executive
Director of the Sláintecare Programme Office requested the Department of Health
to provide an outline of how many public hospital beds would be released if the
recommendations of the de Buitléir report were implemented, the Medical Independent can reveal.

The report of the independent review group, which was
chaired by Dr Donal de Buitléir, made a number of recommendations concerning
the removal of private activity from public hospitals.

In June, before the publication of the final report in
August, Ms Laura Magahy asked Mr Colm Ó Conaill, Private Health Insurance Unit
at the Department, for a table “showing the impact of how many public hospital
beds would be released over time if/when de Buitléir is implemented”.

Mr Toomey stated that the de Buitléir report concluded a
significant number of what would be private patients under the current system
would simply become public patients under a system where private activity was
no longer permitted.

The reasons for this included admission through emergency
departments and no equivalent services in private hospitals.

“In effect, what the group felt was that if private
activity is no longer permitted, the public system would be required to treat
an equivalent number of public patients, as these patients have nowhere else to
go,” stated Mr Toomey.

“On that
basis, they concluded that the removal of private activity is unlikely to
free-up significant capacity and therefore does not free-up any beds.”

However, it was
likely some patients would seek a private service in a private hospital, he
added.